Obama's America

A Transformative Vision of Our National Identity

IAN REIFOWITZ

Publication Year: 2011

Our national identity is defined by what it means to be an American and whom we include and why when we talk about “the American people.” A country’s national identity is fluid, and Ian Reifowitz argues that President Barack Obama, by emphasizing the ideals Americans hold dear, hopes to redefine ours in a fundamental way. Obama’s conception of America emphasizes two principles of national unity: First, all Americans, regardless of their heritage and cultural traditions, should identify with America as their country, based upon shared democratic values, a shared history, and a shared fate. Second, America should embrace all its citizens as active participants in one “family.” Reifowitz explores Obama’s belief that strengthening our common bonds will encourage Americans to rectify the injustices and heal the racial divisions that still plague our country.

We have the opportunity to demonstrate to the world that a society of many races and cultures can truly become one people. In facing terrorism, violent fundamentalism, and other security issues, Obama’s response centers on a powerful, inspiring, and truly inclusive American narrative. By bolstering America’s identity as diverse yet unified, he aims both to counter the anxieties and fears that radicalism stokes and give proponents of religious and political freedom a model they can defend. The stakes couldn’t be any higher in determining America’s future.

Title Page, Copyright

Contents

Foreword

For centuries, blacks and assorted other so-called minorities in America were
defined by their otherness—their options circumscribed by the general assumption
that they were too alien, too indigestible, to fully melt into the
American pot. In The Souls of Black Folk, W. E. B. Du Bois poignantly described
the bewilderment and alienation...

Preface

This book is the culmination of almost two decades of work on multiethnic
societies, nationalism, and identity. I have a personal interest in the topic.
My writing reflects a deep desire to see the success of efforts to strengthen
national unity and inculcate an inclusive American national identity.
Having learned from my...

Acknowledgments

There are many I want to thank and acknowledge for giving me assistance,
guidance, and support in the writing of this book. In terms of institutional
support, I am grateful to Empire State College of the State University of
New York, my professional home since 2002, which awarded me a sabbatical year
to research and write the book...

Introduction

Barack Obama is a different kind of president. What Obama brings to the
presidency is something far more important than simply being an African
American. This book focuses on his particular understanding of what it
means to be an American and his commitment to transforming the way we define
our national identity by making it fully...

1. American National Identity

Who is an American? The American nation, according to the Declaration
of Independence, knew no boundaries at its founding. As written, the
Declaration did not differentiate among blacks, whites, or members
of any ethnic group when discussing the self-evident truth of human equality. The
document cited the “good people of...

2. Since the 1960s

Since its emergence in the 1960s, multiculturalism has come in many varieties—
some moderate, others more extreme.1 Broadly defined, multiculturalism has
hovered over the discussion of how to define our national identity for more than
four decades. The moderate or “soft” form of multiculturalism celebrates the contributions
and identities of nonwhite...

3. Obama’s Search for His Own Identity

As many observers have noted, Obama’s autobiography, Dreams from My
Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, is strikingly literary and not typical for
its genre.1 The work falls somewhere between two well-established categories.
It is clearly within a long tradition of identity narratives written by African
Americans and in its approach to race...

4. Obama on Racial Discrimination

Melissa Harris-Perry has identified four basic, broad ideologies that encompass
much of contemporary African American political thought: black
nationalism, black conservatism, black feminism, and liberal integrationism.
1 There certainly are significant divergences—particularly in rhetorical style
and points of emphasis—among...

5. Candidate and President Obama’sBroader Rhetoric on Race

The way Barack Obama has approached race in America drew harsh criticism
from some black commentators as early as late 2006, when it became apparent
that he was seriously considering a run for the White House.1 Some
accused him of downplaying black issues or the importance of racism, of somehow
being “not black enough” in his politics...

6. Obama’s Vision of National Identity and National Unity

Since the founding of the country, Americans have grappled with how much
weight to assign, respectively, to unity and diversity in defining our national
identity. Focusing solely on unity, as Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson
did, demands cultural homogenization and rejects people’s desire to preserve the
cultural heritage and identity of their...

7. Obama’s Narrative of American History and Our Place in the World

Obama’s depiction of our history as the saga of a people that has fought
and—bit by bit—succeeded in enshrining in law equality for those initially
denied it stands at the center of his drive to invigorate American national
identity. According to Gary Nash, “History . . . is about national identity. . . . It
provides so much of the substance...

8. Rejecting obama’s America

Many voices have expressed opposition to President Obama’s inclusive
and strongly unified definition of American national identity and his
balanced yet hopeful narrative of our history. On the far left, critics
have accused him of glossing over the oppression that America and its white majority
have inflicted on its ethnic minorities over time. A different kind of antagonism
has arisen from a certain segment...

Conclusion

My Country ’Tis of Thee. Think of the words and the meaning of this
song. Marian Anderson sang it in 1939 on the steps of the Lincoln
Memorial after, ironically, the Daughters of the American Revolution
had vetoed her proposed concert in front of a racially integrated crowd in Constitution
Hall. The lyrics surely evoked different feelings on the part of minority and especially
black Americans compared...

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Raised in Smithtown, Long Island, Ian Reifowitz graduated from Brown University
with a BA in history and from Georgetown University with a PhD in history. Since
2002, he has taught history at Empire State College of the State University of New
York, and in 2009 he received...

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